German Adenauer Foundation Says Russia Raid May Damage Relations

By Rainer Buergin -
Mar 26, 2013

Russian raids of German political
party foundations are unacceptable and may impair Russian-German
relations, German party officials said.

The St. Petersburg office of the Konrad-Adenauer-
Foundation, affiliated to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian
Democratic Union, was searched today by Russia’s state
prosecutor. Computers were confiscated on the grounds that
software licenses had to be checked, said Adenauer foundation
chief Hans-Gert Poettering, a former European Parliament
president.

“This morning’s intervention is worrying and can’t be
accepted in any way,” Poettering said on the organization’s
website. “This restriction of our work may also lead to a
strain on our relationship with Russia.”

Russian lawmakers last year required groups that receive
money from abroad to register themselves as “foreign agents”
and submit to tighter controls. Searches in recent days included
the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, affiliated to Germany’s Social
Democratic Party, and other non-government organizations such as
Amnesty International.

German political foundations and Russian NGOs play an
important role in the development of freedom, democracy and the
rule of law, and any obstruction of their work harms Russia’s
democratic development, Poettering said.

“It’s unacceptable that long-standing German project
partners have come under the suspicion of being ‘foreign
agents’,” deputy CDU caucus leader Andreas Schockenhoff said in
an e-mailed statement. “This practice violates the spirit of
cooperation between the societies of Germany and Russia.

It’s in Russia’s interest not to undermine the exchange
between the two countries through ‘‘mistrust and massive
action,” Schockenhoff said. Russia, which wants to present
itself as a cosmopolitan and modern state in coming years at
major events including the Olympic Games in Sochi, is
threatening its own future, he said.